Tremere
The Tremere are a clan of vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade. Once known as House Tremere, a house of mages in the Order of Hermes, the Tremere founders' experiments with vitae transformed them into a bloodline of vampires. They soon ascended to the status of a full-fledged clan by usuring the status of the Salubri clan. Now, they are renowned and distrusted blood magicians, and are one of the strongest pillars of the Camarilla. History The Tremere were named for their founder, a powerful, cunning, and endlessly ambitious mage who called himself Tremere. One of the twelve founders of the houses of the Order of Hermes, Tremere plotted to take over that magical tradition, but was stymied in these plans. Later, House Tremere was instrumental in the Order's purge of one of its own, the druidic House Diedne, and the Tremere took the destroyed house's secrets for itself. At the dawn of the 2nd millennium, Tremere and his two closest apprentices, Etrius and Goratrix, realized that magic was fading from the Earth. Desperately seeking to maintain their power and extend their lives, Goratrix came upon a solution through the vitae of captured Tzimisce. Tremere and his seven closest conspirators (including Etrius, Goratrix, and Meerlinda) drank the vitae-derived potion that Goratrix has distilled, but the potion failed to grant them immortality and instead transformed them into vampires. Although the Tremere lost their ability to work true magic, the arcane insights they retained allowed them to form the versatile Discipline of Thaumaturgy. Tremere and his Inner Circle rapidly Embraced scores of neonates from within House Tremere, hoping to convert the entire house into Cainites before the Order detected them and attempted to purge them as they had the Diedne. Meanwhile, they fought an ongoing war with the Tzimisce and their allies in the Gangrel and Nosferatu. This conflict, known as the Omen War, intensified when the other clans learned that the Tremere had used captive members of those clans to create a bloodline of monstrous slaves: the Gargoyles. Searching for power, Tremere discovered the haven of Saulot, the Antediluvian founder of the Salubri clan. Tremere committed diablerie on the ancient vampire, usurping his status as a member of the Third Generation and a de facto founder of a clan, while his Inner Circle stood guard. Neither Tremere nor his co-conspirators realized until after the diablerie had begun that Saulot was not struggling against his murderer. Soon after, Tremere's body began uncontrollably shifting into the form of a great white worm through the power of Vicissitude. Saulot's soul had survived in the body of Tremere himself, and the two would spend nearly a millennium contesting for control of their shared form. Tremere isolated himself from his clan in their bastion at Ceoris, and spread his Inner Circle across Europe. At the dawn of the 13th century, the vampiric infestation within House Tremere was exposed to the rest of the Order, and the Massasa War between the Order and the Tremere began. In 1210, the highly respected Tremere mage Grimgroth betrayed the Order at Mistridge, allowing the Craftmasons to destroy the covenant; Grimgroth was believed destroyed, but was actually Embraced soon after by Tremere himself. The Massasa War died off as both parties had a more immediate threat to deal with in the form of the Inquisition; later still, the Tremere faced the Anarch Revolt, while the Order faced the Ascension War against the Order of Reason, which had gained the Craftmasons among its ranks. The Anarch Revolt ended at the Convention of Thorns, where the Tremere joined with the Camarilla. Three years later, the Assamites were punished for their involvement in the Revolt: at the Treaty of Tyre, Tremere awoke from torpor to assist his clan as they levied the blood curse against the Assamites. Although the Anarch Revolt was over, not all former Anarchs had made peace with the clans and elders of the Camarilla. Goratrix split from the Tremere after centuries of mutual betrayals, and formed the Tremere antitribu, House Goratrix, within the Sabbat. These antitribu delved into the mysteries of Dark Thaumaturgy and, with the Tzimisce, created the freakish Blood Brothers bloodline. Ultimately, the antitribu was destroyed at a gathering in Mexico City in 1999. As Saulot emerged victorious from his psychic struggle within Tremere's form, Tremere forced his mind into Goratrix's body, and forced Goratrix's soul into a mirror. Tremere, in Goratrix's body, gathered almost every member of House Goratrix together, and destroyed them en masse in a conflagration he ignited during a ritual. Category:Tremere Category:Clans Category:Bloodlines